The subject invention relates to methods for improving turf growth and maintenance through the use of novel irrigation solutions. In more detail, the inventive method provides the turf or other grasses with irrigating solution enriched with air, ozone, oxygen, and nitrogen oxides ions within a prescribed range.
A healthy lawn is comprised of thousands of individual grass plants, which in turn are made up of dozens of individual parts. Beginning at the top is the grass blade, the most visible part of the plant. But more importantly, at the base of the plant, next to the ground, is the crown. The crown supports the growth of visible grass blades and is essential to sod strength and density.
Shooting upward from the crown is the primary shoot, from which the grass blades originate. Secondary shoots, referred to as xe2x80x9ctillersxe2x80x9d, also grow from the crown providing additional leaves essential to good sod density.
Below the crown are the roots, which spread out underground to absorb water, oxygen and nutrients and to anchor the plant. Creeping grasses spread by runners that go along the ground intermittently creating another grass plant. Rhizomes are underground, and above ground runners and referred to as stolons.
The subject invention is useful for treating a wide variety of grasses including all warm and cool season grasses.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,697,187, the instant inventor disclosed a novel method for treatment of crops by an irrigation solution. In more detail, in one embodied form, the patented method comprises the steps of producing a gaseous mixture of ionized air with prescribed amounts of ozone, oxygen and oxygen ions and effecting direct contact between the ionized air gaseous mixture and a supply of water by means of a submicron injector to produce a gaseous solution for treatment of irrigation water to be applied to agricultural crops. Thus, by treating the crops during irrigation, the process is successful in stopping surface fungus and molds on plants above ground.
Crop-environment interactions are a very complex system and specific mechanisms are often hard to identify and isolate. Thus, occasional controversy over interpretations may occur; however, many facts are clear and beyond dispute. For example, when soils are depleted of essential inorganic nutrients readily identified deficiency symptoms usually appear. In other cases, such as with oxygen stress and the concurrent response to toxins that usually are produced, specific systems are more difficult to identify and isolate with present technology. It is commonly known that soil oxygen concentrations are in direct proportion to soil porosity and soil air content; thus, aeration is one variable that is directly affected by waterlogging (excess soil water). Waterlogging may occur naturally during a prolonged and intense rainfall or during excessive irrigation. waterlogged conditions restrict the supply of oxygen to plant roots and to soil micro-organisms (microbes) by displacing the soil air and slowing oxygen diffusion; thus, creating anaerobic (without oxygen) soil conditions and producing soil gases that can be toxic to plant growth.
In soils, adequate exchangeable calciums (the active calcium) is necessary to maintain good soil structure. Total soil calcium content is not necessarily a good indicator of structural conditions that a soil may possess; so, many other factors must be taken into consideration. Soil structure and its particle size distribution determines porosity and the ability of the soil to hold and release water to growing plants in addition to the aeration (oxygenation) status. Thus, factors which affect soil structure are important variables in plant nutrition.
The rate of oxygen used by plant and microbe respiration in soil can be very large in comparison with the amount contained in the volume of soil usually occupied by root systems. Anaerobic conditions develop when roots and soil microbes use oxygen for respiration faster than it can enter the soil through its numerous interconnected soil pores and does not necessarily require that waterlogged conditions exist.
Plant roots and soil organisms obtain energy in a series of enzyme driven reactions involving the transfer of electrons (negatively charged particles) through the oxidation-reduction process with the ultimate production of water and carbon dioxide. If insufficient amounts of molecular oxygen are present carbon dioxide formation is incomplete and toxic intermediates which are potentially harmful to plants are formed.
Since oxygen diffusion is 100,000 times slower in water than air, small increases in concentration can have a large effect on the amount of oxygen available for respiration. It is well known that nitrates and nitrogen dioxide are reduced to nitrogen gas through the action of denitrifying bacteria with the concurrent release of combined oxygen.
With respect to turf growth, those skilled in the art have recognized a significant need for improving root mass and sod strength and improve density of the turf in addition to suppressing fungal disease such as leaf rust that detracts from the visual appearance and plant health. The present invention fulfills these needs.
The present invention provides unique methods for improving growth and maintenance of warm and cool season grasses by treatment with prescribed irrigation solutions to improve water penetration, reduce water usage, increase soil oxygen and inhibit pathogens. Accordingly, by treating the turf and other grasses with the novel irrigation solution, enriched with dissolved oxygen, a higher quantity, healthier and more vigorous plant growth is achieved.
In a presently preferred embodiment, the inventive method comprises the steps of:
a) producing a gaseous mixture of negatively charged ionized air including from about 50 parts per million to about 4,000 parts per million ozone, from about 1,000 parts per million to 20,000 parts per million oxygen ions, and from 2,000 to about 50,000 parts per million nitrogen oxides from ambient air;
b) effecting direct contact between said gaseous mixture of ionized air derived from step a) and a supply of water by means of a submicron injector to produce a gaseous solution for treatment of turf and other grass sod;
c) continuing said contact between said gaseous mixture of ionized air and said water supply at the rate of 0.1 cfm to 2.0 cfm per 100 gpm of irrigation water; and
(d) providing the resultant dissolved oxygen enriched gaseous solution to irrigate turf and other grasses.